For Your Binder

Children's later school success appears to have been enhanced by more active, child-initiated early learning experiences.  This link will let you access the full article; and it's a good one!  #play #DAP #teaching #learning #pushdown

This report is a collaboration between the Alliance for Childhood and the US Play Coalition acknowledging that while play is making a come-back, we still need rapid, wide-spread progress to avoid additional suffering from play deprivation and to heal children already suffering from it.  #play #DAP #playwork #outside #movement #recess

Here's the backstory: The author, John Taylor, is a retired superintendent of schools in Lancaster, S.C., he offered this history about the essay he wrote while leading that district:  

The parody was originally titled "Absolutely the Best Dentists."  It was written and sent to every newspaper and legislator in South Carolina a number of years ago in an attempt to point out the absurdities inherent in South Carolina's then new accountability act which was focused on absolute performance and threatened retention for every child who couldn't meet very challenging grade level standards. (Not to mention severe penalties for "poorly performing" schools, teachers and administrators.) Since then it has traveled widely to the point that I have not been able to keep up with the uses; but I know it has appeared in teacher association publications in at least three Canadian Provinces and in Australia, as well as dozens in the USA. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) seems to have given the story a new life.  Thus: No Dentist Left Behind.

#pushdown #DAP #play #teaching #learning

This 2015 report provides preliminary findings from the longitudinal Vanderbilt Study, which started in 2009.  This study set out to identify whether or not children who participate in Tennessee PreK programs make greater gains than children who don't. #teaching #learning #DAP #pushdown 

An excerpt from her book of essays of the same title, it'll whet your whistle and make you realize you need to get the book! #DAP #teaching #learning #theorists

Toes not toys!  #play #DAP #looseparts #teaching #learning #environment

A good overview of the benefits of The Mix, but the reason it's here is for the modified image of Vygotsky's ZPD, which I really liked! #teaching #learning #theorists #mixedages #DAP  

This is a link to his site, scroll down to read the Q/A section for some background as to why he wrote How Children Succeed, 2012. #resilience #learning #teaching #DAP #play

It's only October, but already Nicky is exhibiting symptoms of student ennui. The other day, when his mother asked him the best thing about school, he said lunch. Most boring? Art history.  Sound typical?  Perhaps.  Except Nicky isn't a moody adolescent - Nicky is only 5.  #pushdown #DAP #play #teaching #learning

Part III in a series by Peter Gray. #play #DAP #learning #teaching

A nice overview of Lilian Katz' book, The Case for Mixed-Age Grouping in Early Education, 1990, if you have not yet read it! #DAP #learning #teaching #mixedages

I still believe it all comes back to either Love or Fear (meaning anything other than "love" has it's origin in "fear") but this might assist as we identify how fear might be manifesting. #DAP #teaching #learning